Telecommunications networks may provide a number of services, such as plain old telephone service (“POTS”), digital subscriber line (“DSL”), and cable. A telecommunications network may be divided into a plurality of geographic areas known as turfs. Maintenance of the telecommunications network generally involves a proper reallocation of technicians across the turfs such that work orders can be timely filled. For example, when one turf experiences a high volume of work orders, it may be desirable to reallocate available technicians from another, preferably nearby, turf with a low volume of work orders to help with the high volume. The reallocation of technicians may be based on a number of factors, such as the location, skills, schedule, and availability of the technicians, as well as the priority of the work orders and the amount of time to complete the work orders.
A technician is typically given a work schedule at the beginning of each work shift. The work schedule may include each work order to be completed by the technician during a given work shift. Ideally, the technician's work schedule includes a sufficient amount of work such that unproductive time (i.e., time in which the technician is waiting to be dispatched to a job) is minimized. There may be times, however, when the technician's work schedule does not include enough work orders to fill the work shift, thereby leaving a significant amount of unproductive time. One way to fill the technician's work schedule with additional work orders is to move work orders from future work shifts to the current work shift.
A load balance supervisor (“LBS”) may be assigned to coordinate the reallocation of technicians within a plurality of turfs. Information related to future jobs may be useful to the LBS and other load balancing personnel. The LBS conventionally relies on multiple filter changes in an Integrated Dispatch System (“IDS”) to identify future jobs that may be moved between work shifts. Performing these multiple filter changes can be time consuming, thereby increasing the unproductive time of the technician.